Friday 9/11, Allentown TTT
The morning of the team time trial, I woke up to a cold, windy and rainy day. It was bringing back memories of the road race from last year. We arrived to the course with enough time to take a lap as a team before it closed down for the rest of the day. By this point I knew the all the turns very well from the laps in the car, on the bike and in my head. I did some visualization the night before which helped a ton. It's amazing how running through each turn in my mind the night before really helped me feel comfortable during the race. We were able to pull together enough trainers for the warm up that everyone had one. I got a decent warm up in, considering the trainer I was on had no resistance. With about 10 minutes to go we rolled to the start and checked in. By this time the rain was holding out, but it was still it the low 60s with wind gusts into the 40s. 3 Minutes to go, we head up to the start line in our pre determined order with some last minute equipment checks. 1 minute and we are ready to rock and roll. When the bell goes off Peter takes a slight lead and the rest of us fall into place behind him. After the first turn we try and get into position as fast as possible. The it takes a bit to get into a rotation, but we finally get organized and are flying down the long straightaway into turn 2. Our practice had gone very well the day before, so our team communication was decent. That, plus we had radios with Bernard in the follow car behind us letting us know to speed up or slow down, depending on our flow. At this point the wind was still a major factor, and the roads were wet, but the rain had died down. We made it through the first lap with only one causality in Alex, but he put in a big pull at the front before the uphill into the start/finish stretch. Our split time was decent, and put us mid-pack of the teams that had already finished. The second lap though we needed to hit it hard. We kept our formation tight, and handled the corners well. Nick fell off the pace midway into the 2nd lap, so we were down to 3 with Peter David and I to finish off the race. I was feeling surprisingly good up until this point, without having to go too much into the red. But as soon as we lost Nick it got exponentially harder, with the final few kilometers going all out to stay as a tight group of 3 to the finish line. The final uphill was a lot harder the second time, but once over it I went to the front for the final time and pulled hard. Then David took over and Peter rode the final stretch into the finish with the long pull across the finish line. I was the third rider, so the clock stopped when I crossed and I was completely drained. The race had gone from manageable almost the entire time, to very difficult the final half lap. Overall i was please with my effort, and our team ended up midpack, with a 15 of 30 team finish.
Saturday 9/12, Souderton RR
It is almost identical weather conditions at the start of this years race as it was last year. Overcast skies with a slight rain. It would end up raining pretty much the entire race, but a lot lighter than last year's monsoon. The race rolled out about 10 minutes late and half way into the "neutral" rollout there was disaster. Our whole team had great position at the front just behind the pace car, but almost all of the second half the riders were taken out from a stupid crash in the middle of the field. The stopped the whole field in the middle of the road and we waited another 10 minutes for the wounded to be taken care of mechanicals to be sorted out. I later found out that the crash even took a few people out of the race with broken bones. When they restarted us there was no neutral start, so it was parked to racing in a matter of seconds. I kept decent position near the front, and was cautious around the rain slicked corners. There was a huge sigh of relieve when I made it past the point I almost died in last year when I wiped out into an open intersection while chasing the peloton after a wheel change. There were a few attacks, but no one was really staying away until Peter got into a group of 2, then 3, that started putting time into the main field. Mike Olhesier eventually would bridge up to this group that would survive until 4 laps into the local circuit. Back in the field I was feeling good, but digging deep to keep my position on the tight and windy backroads of PA. The climbs were killer, with some extremely steep pitches on certain sections. I was glad that I had my 26 gear and it actually worked (unlike green mtn when I couldn't shift into it). While many people were out of the saddle spinning their wheels on the wet pavement, I was able to stay seated for most of the climbing and keep a good cadence. The last 200 meters of the second climb was all out of saddle though, and it seemed like myself and everyone around me was going in slow motion. The local laps finally came, but there were 33 more miles to ride during on the 3 mile 11 lap circuit. Each lap got faster and faster, and when the peloton eventually caught Peter's break the pace got really fast with counter attacks trying to form what would become the winning move. Each lap completed I could feel my legs closer to cramping and just loosing any power left I had in them. The hardest part of the circuit was the feed zone hill with people attacking over the top of it on the false flat section. After crossing the finish line for the 7th time I made my way up the hill for the last time. I dug deep, probably deeper than I ever have before to hold over the top of the hill. When I got to the top I turned around to find a huge gap with no one in sight. I was the last rider in line, and knew my time would be short lived back there. I made another effort to move up past a large group of riders to give myself some cushion. At this point it was hard enough for me to pedal, let along concentrate what I was doing, so when I made a right hand turn that I had done so with ease the previous 6 times, I overshot it big time. I didn't crash, but I forced myself up and over the curb, tried to regain my speed and get back on the street, but by this time the peloton was speeding away from me. I tried to sit in the caravan for a few turns, but my legs had nothing left. I had gone into my reserves one too many times. I soft pedaled the last of bit of lap 8 and the ref pulled me at the line. I couldn't be upset with today because I had out-lasted more than half the field, and improved upon last years DNF by a ton. It is a bit disheartening though because I took myself out of the race with a bad mental mistake. But it does go back to fitness because if I would have still felt OK at this point, I probably wouldn't have been racing in the half blacked-out state that is the "pain cave." Peter and Nick would go on to finish with the remnants of the main field, with David getting taken out by an unfortunate puncture in the local laps.
Sunday 9/13, Doyelstown Crit
Again, the weather mimicked last year's with not a cloud in the sky and high 70s; crazy. Pro crits have not been my strong suit all season long. I can't seem to move anywhere, and end up just racing as pack-fill, suffering the whole time. I have come to the conclusion that this is because I am too nice. I can get to the front of these fast paced races, but once I get there, I immediately start to lose my position, and then try again. Well this is not a good way to conserve energy, but I keep trying nonetheless. And then about 80-90% of the race finished, I finally pop and lose all motivation to continue my charge to the front. So for next season, my one and only goal for all criteriums that I race is to get to the front, stay at the front, and don't let anyone take my spot. That means no tapping the brakes on straightaways and taking corners without giving up position. This will let me keep my energy for the sprint and also keep myself out of danger. So anyway, I made the same mistakes today and raced as pack-fill, getting myself to the front several times before losing my position almost immediately and wasting a ton of matches. I lasted about 80% of the race and then was totally spent and had to drop. Right after the race I had to pack up my bike to be shipped home, and then get to the airport to catch a flight back to Chicago.